I had read reviews on this board and seen it rated well. Why was it so bad for me when I tried it the first time? Has my opinion changed after a second shot? Read on to find out!
I will leave my previous review at the bottom of this one, however keep in mind it is not my current opinion on the board.
Looks - The Tarantula looks awesome. Great wrist wrest with a sweet glowing emblem, nice back lighting on the side/macro keys, and the shiny black finish on the rest of the board is very clean and sleek looking. I haven't seen a board that looks quite this good, unless you count Razer's newest board the Lycosa. It is pretty close, but I would still rate the Tarantula highest in looks.
The shape of the board is pretty squarish. It is also larger than a standard keyboard which might be a problem for some folks with small desk space. I would not recommend this board for tight spaces. However, that's probably the only reason I would not recommend it. Overall the key layout is the same standard keyboard layout with a few extras. The Delete/Home/Page Up key cluster is shaped differently than standard, but not enough to really throw someone off and it is very easily gotten used to. Overall the key placement on the board is very nice and somehow feels more clustered and close together, even though the board itself is much larger than an average keyboard. I like this as it makes the keys feel easier to get to quickly, which is important for gaming.
The only downside that I can see with this board is that it doesn't have a lot of back lighting. It looks like all the main keys that one would use don't light up, which is surprising seeing as how the macro keys do light up, as well as the Profile key that allows you to switch profiles that are stored in the board's own memory. I don't really game in the dark that often so I can't see this being a problem for me. However if you are a night time, dark room gamer, I can see this being a small problem if you have to look at your keys much to see what's going on. Most people feel their keys anyway, so I don't see this as being a big problem. Unless I'm missing something in the software (that I haven't installed yet) I don't think the main keys light up.
I think it would just look so much cooler if the board lit up like the Razer Lycosa does, or even better if it had 3 colors to choose from like the Saitek Eclipse II or Ideazon Merc Stealth. The purple color at high intensity on both of those boards is pretty darn cool looking against their black areas and tends to show up the best for my eyes in darker situations.
Performance - In my previous review of this board, I couldn't help but ask myself why on earth someone would pay $100 for a board that doesn't work well. The answer to this is... no one would. So why was I seeing good reviews on this board, after I tried one and saw that it basically sucked? I had problems with keys doubling when pressed, shifts not working, spaces not happening, etc... it went on and on. Almost every key on the thing gave me some type of problem. Thank goodness for second chances, otherwise this one would have stayed on the bad list.
There was obviously something wrong with my first board. I don't know what, but I can tell you right away that when I took this one out of the box and pushed the keys to test the feel, I knew that something was wrong with the previous one. The keys felt completely different in the way they pressed. There was some pressure there, unlike the previous one, and they had a "click" so to speak that I could feel when the keys made positive contact. The previous board I reviewed had none of this. I don't know if an insulation layer was missed in production somehow, or if the mechanisms that controlled how the keys worked were faulty, or what! Fortunately this board feels totally different. If I had to shut my eyes and use them both, I would have said they were completely different boards.
The Tarantula works great. They keys are short so you can push them and get response quickly. Not too short, but just right for me. They press easily and give good user feedback on what's going to happen on screen when you push them. The space bar works great as well and feels sturdy. It is very easy to type normally with, and really good for gaming as the key responses are quick because of the minimized distance the user has to push the keys for said response to happen. I have not used the Macro-able keys yet as I have not installed the software yet (see below) but I will test that out tonight during some World of Warcraft!
Software - I have not tried out the software yet. This I will have to revisit once I have done so. If you can't tell, I'm more of a plug and play person when it comes to hardware, and prefer to use as little software as possible so as to not clutter my PC. :)
Conclusion - 9/10. I think this is a great board for anyone (as long as they don't get a bad one!). I don't know what it is about Razer products, but they either work really well or bomb right from the start (see my new Razer Lachesis review). I'm glad I gave this board a second chance, as I will more than likely use it in place of my Saitek Eclipse II that I've been using for a long while now. Saitek is a great board as well, but lacking in the looks and some of the feel of this board.
The review below is my old review, based on the previous Tarantula I tried. I have now concluded that something was definitely wrong with it. Feel free to read it as well, just keep in mind it is not my opinion on the Tarantula, now that I have reviewed one that works well.
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I decided I'd try out the Tarantula keyboard. Having tried other Razer products and really liking them, I thought this would be hands-down the best keyboard I'd tried so far. Well, I was surprisingly wrong, and that's bad news for a $100 keyboard.
Looks - in this category, I'd have to say the Tarantula does win. It looks great. It has good coloring, it's shiny black, and the layout is pretty nice. The only buttons that are shiny though are the side ones. The main keypad buttons didn't light up for me. I did not install the software, but I think they would've lit up without the software if they were going to. The wrist rest looks cool, and has the familiar 3 snake emblem on it that glows.
Shape - a little large for my taste. The keyboard is wider because of the extra programmable buttons added to the left and right sides. This is fine if you use buttons like that a lot, however I don't ever use buttons like that. If you want a nice looking keyboard with built-in programmable buttons, then I'd say this would be a good one to look over. It's also deeper than most keyboards, as the wrist rest tends to be longer than most. It's overall pretty square, with fairly rounded edges. It's also fairly heavy.
Performance - here is where I was really let down by this keyboard. For $100, I would hope that there would be no doubt at all about how the thing would perform. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I've owned many $20 keyboards that performed better than this one. Let me explain in detail.
When I first started using the keyboard, I noticed right away that the buttons don't seem to press down as far as most keyboards. Not as short as a laptop's keyboard, but not as deep as a normal desktop board. That's good, I thought. It shortens response time (even though I'm sure not noticeably). That's true, to an extent. However, the keys don't actually register that they are being pushed until they get to the very, very bottom of where they are being pushed. So for example, if you type quickly, chances are you'll press keys and nothing will happen because the Tarantula will not register every key press unless every key was pushed all the way down. Half-hearted key presses won't register, like you never pushed the key at all.
Also the key "feel" is not up to par. For example, a $50 Saitek keyboard feels much better than the Tarantula. This is of course personal preference, as we are talking about "feel". However, if you like your keyboards to respond without beating the keys and to feel soft and quiet when the keys are pressed, then the Tarantula is not for you. I feel like Razer almost designed this board for the people who really beat on a keyboard. Gamers don't always belong to the "rough on hardware" and "beating equipment" groups. Sure, some people throw their mice in anger or bash a keyboard, but that has nothing to do with use (fortunately I've never done either of those two!).
The cord is bulky for this thing. It has 4 plugs: 2 USB and 2 sound. This is a neat feature of the keyboard, however I don't know who plugs devices into their keyboard (unless it's something small like a flash drive). You can plug in a mic, headset, and up to 2 USB devices. This is good, however as I said I don't know how many people would use this. It didn't appeal to me, except maybe easy access to a USB port for a flash drive. I see it as a temporary use thing, not long-term, leaving something plugged in for months thing.
Software - I didn't even get that far. I used the keyboard for about three or four hours total, and just thought basically from the start that it was not as good as others I had used. So I didn't install the software and test out any advanced features. This might make up for the lack of feel to some users, however feel is important to me since I would use it for everyday typing as well.
Conclusion - 6/10. I'd have to say I was very disappointed. I expected better feel and performance out of a Razer product. Unless I got a dud that the keys were just not as responsive, I'm not sure what the deal is. I really wanted this keyboard to just be awesome so I could keep and enjoy it, but after using it for a few hours it just doesn't seem to have the same performance/feel as a Saitek, or even a simple Logitech wireless keyboard I have that cost $40 with a mouse. Overall, I think if the keyboard were priced in the $50 range, it would have at least been acceptable.
I'm still considering giving it one more shot, and giving the feel more time. A part of me feels like a keyboard that costs $100 should feel great right out of the box though, not need to be gotten used to. I haven't ever had this issue with other keyboards. This one overall seems to have less responsive keys it seems than most keyboards.
Is it worth $100? Absolutely not. $49.99? Probably. Even then, I would probably choose a Saitek instead.
-Rav
